Pet fountains that create flowing water for attracting pets are well known and there have been a number of commercially successful pet fountains. Exemplary pet fountains generally include a spout or other water-directing means for providing a continuous flow of water from a reservoir to a container such that the pet is able to drink either directly from the flowing water stream or from the container.
Some of the known pet fountains allow the water stream to free-fall from the spout when flowing from the container. These pet fountains can create a splash where the free-falling water stream enters a volume of “still” water in a container and/or can deflect from mouths or heads of pets while they drink directly from the free-falling water stream, creating drips or puddles on nearby floor surfaces. Stated another way, such free-falling pet fountains can, at least at times, be messy.
Other known pet fountains utilize multiple containers that are connected to each other at respective sides, or openings through such sides, to create a chain or series of containers arranged in a decreasing height order. This allows water to be pumped to the tallest container and then flow, by way of gravity, through the multiple containers, sequentially until the water is collected in the lowermost container. Such pet fountains can occupy a large amount of floor space since the multiple containers typically define an, at least somewhat, overall elongate structure. Some such pet fountains occupy relatively less floor space, but are rather tall and are configured to look like, for example, mountains or other geological forms, which may not fit with some modern or other decors.
Pet fountains use electronic pumps to draw water from the container and push the water through, at times a filter and then, the spout. Typical pumps have a grate or grill-like inlet and/or an integrated porous material.
These structures at the pump inlets typically prevent the pump from ingesting, for example, large pieces of debris, while leaving the pumps vulnerable to smaller particles that can cause wear of various internal pump mechanisms over time. Stated another way, known pumps do not have pre-filtering or pull-through filtering but, instead, usually push water through a “true” filtering device, if the water is being truly filtered at all. Furthermore, integrated grates, grills, or porous materials in typical pumps are not serviceable items, whereby their failures can require replacing the entire pump device.
It therefore would be desirable to provide a pet fountain that establishes a non-free-falling water stream and occupies only a small surface area upon a floor. It might also be desirable to provide pre-filtering or a pull-through filter feature to enhance performance and extend use lives of known pump devices. It might further prove desirable to provide pet fountains that do not appear awkward with respect to the decorating styles of the rooms in which they are used.